> Paul, by that reasoning, Firebird is a 22 year effort with zero
> customers.

Zero?

> My point is that many open source database systems are
> thriving, receiving significant revenues, attracting major
> investment, and paying competitive salaries to employees. And I'm
> arguing that Firebird could too if it paid some attention to the
> basics.

Oh, here we agree completely. It is just that factually incorrect
claims of FB not being a succesful O/S project make me very irate.
The numbers show that we are very successful. Could we do a lot of
things better? Absolutely.

> My concern is the majority of Firebird users came from Delphi and
> Interbase, both of which are officially on the block by Borland,
> and both of which may blow away any day now. Without a steady
> stream of Delphi developers, where is the growth?

Yes, this is a concern. Yet we have all the kernels of growth already
in place. Wins like SAS and Frontrange are not Delphi related.
Morfik's WebOS has all the potential to be wildly successful. Java,
PHP and dotNet are already the basis of 20% of FB projects, "DevCo"
is a wildcard, etc.

> >Jim, check your facts & do the math: FB/IB *is* the market leader
> >on Windows.
> You're looking backward; I'm looking forward.

True. So at least we agree about the current market realities where
FB leads on Windows. The future will reveal itself in due course.

> >Although the points you make have merit, the facts are that FB is
> >in a good position and gaining momentum. You and I both know that
> >Firebird regularly wins over other databases in selection
> >processes. You may not like that, but it does not change the facts.
> >
> That's rather cruel, Paul. I've been arguing that there are things
> Firebird must do to continue to be successful, and being adopter
> friendly is at the head of the list.

Agree. There are a lot of things we can improve. Did not mean to be
cruel, sorry about that.

> About half of MySQL developers are from the US. And most were
> recruited from the community.

If you say so. You will also know that MySQL was a european affair
till about 2000. Only after LAMP became wildly successful in Germany
did folks like Tim O'Reilly start to push the concept in the US.

> I don't know what to make of the dearth of US developers, just like
> I don't understand why the only female developers in open source
> joined the projects before they went open source (there's gotta one
> somewhere, but neither Ann nor I have found her).

<speculation>
It might have to do with culture. [1] In the US many things are mono-
culture. Did it ever strike you as strange that light switches in
California are identical to those in Virginia? In the US folks tend
to go with stuff that is perceived as the standard. In Europe,
whatever is standard changes every 100 miles or so, and people are
much more comfortable working with a local (minority) standard. [2]
In the US it is not so easy to get legal clearance from your employer
for community contributions.
</speculation>

Paul